


149,600,000 km

by Rehearsal_Dweller



Series: The Speed of Light [3]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: M/M, There is an 8-year-old in this fic and she is ADORABLE
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-17
Updated: 2014-10-17
Packaged: 2018-02-21 12:04:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2467676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rehearsal_Dweller/pseuds/Rehearsal_Dweller
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Visits all around!<br/>Nico (and Ash) visits Sally Jackson and his sisters, and Will over-plans.</p><p>(the distance from the earth to the sun)</p>
            </blockquote>





	149,600,000 km

**Author's Note:**

> Disappointingly, this fic is devoid of my usual clever light puns.  
> At least I've got a good title, right?
> 
> Also: This story takes place _before_ the last segment in Ultraviolet. That's fairly obvious within the story, but I figured I might as well be upfront about it.

“Hey! Hey, Nico!” a voice called after him as he crossed the green between the cabins.

Nico turned around, surprised but not shocked to see Percy leaning against the doorframe of Cabin 3. “Hi, Percy. What’s up?”

“My mom wanted me to see if you were free to come to dinner Sunday night,” Percy said. “I think she’s worried about you.”

“Oh,” said Nico, surprised, “uh, yeah. But – would be all right if I brought someone along?”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Percy replied. “But, uh, who?”

Nico frowned. “You haven’t – give me a minute, I’ll introduce you.”

He ran the rest of the way to Cabin 11 and tapped on the door.

“Hey, Ash, your babysitter’s here,” Connor called.

Nico heard quick footsteps, and then the door was flung open. “Hi Nico!”

“Hey, Shadow,” said Nico. “There’s somebody you need to meet.”

“Okay,” Aisling said brightly, holding out a hand. Previously, Nico would’ve hesitated or resisted, but he’d learnt that the best way to keep track of her was to hold onto her hand as tightly as possible.

“We’re gonna go talk to my friend Percy,” Nico explained. “His mom asked me to go to go over for dinner on Sunday and I’m going to ask Chiron if I can bring you along. What do you say?”

“That sounds fun,” Aisling mused. “We should bring something. We could bake cookies!”

“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea, Ash,” said Nico. “But I’ll think about it. Hey, Perce!”

“Nico, where did you – oh, who’s that?”

“Percy, this is Aisling. Shadow, this is Percy Jackson,” Nico introduced, nudging the eight-year-old forward.

“Are you a super hero too?” asked Aisling.

“What?” replied Percy.

“Will says Nico’s a super hero ‘cause he saved camp three times,” Aisling explained, “and everybody in Hermes Cabin said you saved the whole _world_ twice now, so you must be one, too, yeah?”

“I –“

“Yeah, Shadow, he is,” Nico interrupted. “Percy, Ash is my – uh, shadow? She’s the one I was talking about.”

“Oh, alright, yeah. My mom’ll love that,” said Percy. “But, uh, Nico? When did you get a 3rd grader?”

\--

“Nico, sweetheart, it’s been too long!” Sally Jackson greeted.

Nico smiled. “Hi, Sally. I’m sorry, I’ve been a bit busy.”

Sally pulled Nico into a hug. Nico didn’t squirm away or anything like he usually would, just wrapped his arms around her and hugged back.

“Oh!” said Sally, releasing him. “Where’s your little friend?”

Aisling, who was holding onto the back of Nico’s shirt, took half a step out from behind him.

“Ash, don’t be shy,” Nico said gently. “You were so excited on the way over.”

Aisling waved. “Hi.”

“Hello,” said Sally. She bent down so that her eyes were level with Aisling’s. “I’m Sally. What’s your name?”

“Aisling,” the little girl replied.

“Nice to meet you, Aisling,” said Sally.

Aisling smiled. “Nice to meet you, too.”

Sally straightened up. “Dinner should be soon. We’re just waiting on Paul; I sent him to the store for dessert half an hour ago, and apparently the grocery store’s a madhouse.”

“All right,” said Nico. “Thank you for inviting me. Us.”

“Nico, you are always welcome here,” Sally replied. “Aisling, too.”

“Oh, Nico and Ash are here?” Annabeth said, appearing behind Sally.

“Anna!” said Aisling, squeezing past Sally to give the older girl a hug. “I didn’t know you were back yet!”

“I just got in this afternoon,” Annabeth replied. “Percy picked me up from the airport and we came straight here.” She ruffled Aisling’s hair. “You been claimed yet, shortstuff?”

“Nuh-uh,” Aisling replied. “Still with Nico, see!”

“Of course, I do see that,” Annabeth said. “Hello Nico.”

“Hi, Annie,” said Nico. “How was New Rome?”

“Roman,” Annabeth replied. “Hazel, Reyna, and Frank say hello. The girls want to know when you’re going to visit.”

“I meant to visit weeks ago,” said Nico, “but then…” He poked Aisling in the middle of the back. “I couldn’t just run out on Shadow.”

“You could take me with you!”

“I don’t know whether I’d be allowed to do that.”

“You never know until you _try_ ,” Aisling said. Annabeth nodded.

\--

“You’re sure you’ve packed enough clothes?”

“Yes.”

“You packed that first aid kit I put together for you?”

“ _Yes_ , Will.”

“And you have a hairbrush and hairbands and clips for Ash?”

“Probably too many.”

“And you’ve got enough drachmas to call me if something goes wrong, right?”

“ _Will_.”

Nico touched Will’s hand, making the older boy go still, caught off guard.

“I know, I know. You’re packed, you’re ready, you’re fine,” Will said.

“That wasn’t what I was going to say,” Nico replied, smiling.

“Oh. Go ahead then,” said Will, going a little pink.

“Thank you,” said Nico. “You’ve been a really big help. I know I would’ve forgotten something of Shadow’s if it weren’t for you. But I _do_ think you need to relax. We’ve been completely packed for two days.”

“Right, I know,” Will said. “It’s just – you haven’t done a jump like this since the end of the war, right? I don’t want you to start to fade again. I – it’d scare Ash.”

Nico wasn’t sure he believed that, mostly because he knew for a fact that Will had already explained that possibility to Aisling, and she’d accepted it with calm concern and questions about what to do to help if it did happen. For an eight-year-old, Ash was kind of unflappable. But Nico knew better than to challenge Will on this; it wouldn’t get them anywhere.

He was relieved when Aisling and Abby walked into the cabin, because it saved him from trying to come up with a response for Will.

“ – and we’ll get to see Jason, and I get to meet Hazel and Reyna and Frank, and we –“ Aisling was saying. “Oh, we’re here!”

“That we are,” said Abby. “You ready to go, Ash?”

“Yeah!”

“Without a hug?”

Aisling threw her arms around Abby’s waist. “Bye, Abby.”  Then she let go and hugged Will, too. “Bye, Will!”

“What do you say, Nico,” Abby said with a mischievous smile, “you gonna give Will a hug goodbye, too?”

Will elbowed her. Nico opened his mouth, closed it, then darted forward and gave Will a one-armed hug so quick that it barely counted as an actual hug. Blushing faintly, he took a step back and held his hand out to Aisling, avoiding Will’s eyes. “Let’s go, Shadow.”

\--

“How come you didn’t want to hug Will?”

“Ash, just eat your sandwich.”

Nico had stopped somewhere in Indiana – he was pretty sure they were in Dyer, so actually practically Illinois – and they were eating lunch at a small restaurant. He didn’t quite trust himself to jump cross-country in one go yet, let alone with a passenger. So a break to recharge had seemed like a good idea.

Until Aisling started asking questions.

“I’ll eat while you answer,” Aisling said decisively.

Nico found that he really didn’t _have_ a good answer. The one he gave, “I just don’t like being touched,” didn’t really feel true this time.

“You let me,” Aisling said.

“Well sometime I make exceptions,” replied Nico. “Like with you, and Hazel, and Reyna, and –“

“Will,” finished Aisling, hiding a smile behind her grilled cheese.

“- _Jason_ ,” Nico corrected.

“ _And_ Will,” insisted Aisling. “I mean it, Nico, you let Will touch you all the time. How come this is different?”

“Finish your sandwich,” Nico said. “We should get going soon.”

“Oh-my-gosh,” replied Aisling. “Ohmygoshohmygosh. Do you _liiiike_ him? Is that why you went all pink after you hugged him goodbye?”

“Finish your sandwich,” Nico repeated.

The third grader giggled. “You do you do! Oh my gosh. I can’t wait to tell Abby.”

“You’ll do no such thing,” said Nico, and immediately knew it was a mistake, as Aisling started to giggle even more.

\--

“Nico!”

Jason’s finely tuned Nico-senses had him running towards Nico and Aisling before they’d even fully solidified.

“Hi, Jason,” Nico said casually while he checked around to make sure that he and Aisling both had everything. Aisling waved.

“I didn’t know you were bringing Aisling,” said Jason.

“We didn’t get official permission until kind of last minute,” Nico told him. “Hazel knows, though. She didn’t mention it?”

“No,” Jason replied. “Well, maybe. I’ve been busy, I might’ve missed it. So, how have you been?”

“Great,” said Nico. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a less-than-subtle look of suspicion on Jason’s face. “No, really. Things are good. Annabeth’s a good teacher, and, okay, Ash is a handful sometimes –“

“Hey!” Aisling interjected.

Nico chuckled and tugged on her braid gently. “Just kidding.”

“I’m glad to see you’re happy,” said Jason. “I’d be lying if I said we weren’t all a bit worried.”

“Thanks,” said Nico. It didn’t quite feel like _enough_ , but Nico still wasn’t quite used to having people who cared about him and couldn’t really come up with anything more. Jason didn’t seem to mind, though, as he smiled brightly.

“Hey, Frank and the girls will want to know you’re here,” Jason said. “Let’s go.”

He took Aisling’s hand and they started to walk toward the city, with Nico trailing behind.

Hazel and Reyna greeted Nico with enthusiasm (Frank was working), and Hazel cooed over Aisling.

“How did you manage to convince Chiron to let you bring her?” Reyna asked quietly while Hazel and Jason listened intently to Aisling tell the story about how she chipped her tooth on an adventure with the Athena cabin last week.

Nico shrugged. “I asked politely. Shadow’s got a mean set of puppy dog eyes.”

“Really?”

“Not exactly,” said Nico. “Basically what it came down to was that she’s still pretty new and young and easily overwhelmed, and she’s most comfortable with me.”

“Well I’m glad to meet her,” Reyna said. “It’s good to know you’re not hiding alone in your cabin over there.”

“Why does everybody keep saying stuff like that?” Nico complained.

“Because there’s a precedent.”

“Right.”

\--

“ – And then Annie locked him out.”

Jason laughed. “Glad to know I’m not missing much.”

“But you’re coming back soon, right?” asked Nico. It was the last night of Nico and Aisling’s west coast visit, and they were walking back to the apartment in town where Jason was staying while he was in New Rome. Jason was carrying Aisling on his back, as she was half asleep.

“Yeah,” said Jason. He shifted Aisling’s weight. “I should be back at Camp Half-Blood by the end of the month.”

Nico nodded. “Good. I, uh, I miss having you around.”

Jason smiled. “I’ve missed you, too, man.”

They walked along in comfortable silence for a while after that.

“Hey, is it true you and Will are a thing now?”

“ _What?”_

Jason laughed. “Just teasing.”

Nico elbowed him, carefully avoiding hitting Aisling’s knee. “Now I’m _glad_ you’re going to be hundreds of miles away from me tomorrow.”

“No, you’re not.”

“No,” Nico said with a sigh, “I’m not.”


End file.
